TDS Wales | Cymru

With so many changes pending to housing in Wales, we hope that our Welsh hub page will give you an overview of what’s to come with some really helpful links for more information. As it stands, there are no changes to deposit protection rules so landlords and agents should continue to protect deposits in the usual way. There are, however, changes coming that will affect you if you are a tenant, landlord or agent:

The Housing (Wales) Act 2014

Although numerous parts to this act, parts one and two are most relevant to the private rented sector.

Part 1 - Rent Smart Wales

In a nutshell, this requires ALL landlords to be part of a registration scheme and requires all letting agents to be licenced. The licencing and registration scheme is known as Rent Smart Wales.

Landlords and agents have had the ability to sign up since the 23 November 2015 and have one year to comply before enforcement action is taken.

Part 2

This changes the way that local authorities deal with homelessness. The most relevant part of this is that its duties can be discharged to the private rented sector meaning private rented property can be used to house social tenants.

The Renting Homes Act 2016

This has passed through the Welsh Assembly but further consultation on the regulations is necessary before being introduced. In summary, this Act includes provisions to prevent retaliatory evictions, giving landlords a streamlined possession procedure in cases of abandoned property, measures to improve the standard of rental accommodation (Fitness for human habitation standard) and also model contracts. The model contracts will comprise fundamental, prescribed and additional terms and seek to make tenancy agreements simpler and easier to understand.